JetBlue cabin
ORLANDO, Fla. - A former JetBlue flight attendant has lost her lawsuit after being terminated for, in part, firing off an email to the company's CEO protesting a mask mandate in 2022.
Florida federal judge Julie Sneed on June 16 ruled in favor of the airline in a lawsuit brought by Elisabeth Serian, who lost the services of her lawyer after claims for retaliation and hostile work environment were tossed.
She still had a failure-to-accommodate claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but Sneed has now thrown that out because Serian didn't file that charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 300 days - a prerequisite to filing an ADA suit.
Sneed rejected the idea JetBlue's alleged failure to accommodate Serian constituted a continuing violation, which would have given Serian more time to file with the EEOC.
"Plaintiff requested an accommodation - an exemption from Defendant's mask mandate - on July 16, 2020," Sneed wrote.
"Defendant denied that request on Aug. 5, 2020. Plaintiff did not, however, file a charge with the EEOC until Oct. 4, 2022, nearly 800 days after Defendant denied her accommodation request."
According to the complaint, Serian began working for JetBlue in March 2014 as a flight attendant. Her frustrations with a mask mandate ultimately caused her to email JetBlue's CEO that she was "done complying [with] tyranny."
In early 2020 at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, Serian says she tried to be a team player by wearing a face mask. But she says her health declined because of the long-term use of face masks mandated by the TSA.
She says she experienced respiratory difficulties, including vomiting, due to wearing a mask for up to 18 hours per day in highly pressurized air.
The complaint says a healthcare practitioner confirmed her health issues and suggested she needed a reasonable accommodation.
Serian says she formally requested an exemption from wearing a face mask in July 2020, but she says she was told to either wear a mask or take a leave of absence.
So, she says she did so. But she also says her health severely deteriorated during the next two years.
"Her respiratory system was inhibited and caused her to vomit as many as nine times per flight," the complaint states. "She spent her days off between flights trying to recover from her respiratory distress, fatigue and nausea.
"She began to believe that her health could no longer withstand the mask requirement but during 2022 it seemed possible that the mandate would soon come to an end. ... Serian thought if her health could tolerate the mask for just a while longer, then the mandate would be rescinded and perhaps her health would improve."
Serian says she emailed JetBlue numerous times during this period to reconsider her requested accommodation, but it continued "to fall on deaf ears." She says she was "very vocal" on JetBlue's unofficial private Facebook page about numerous articles and peer-reviewed studies that indicated that, not only are masks ineffective against fighting COVID, but that "they were actually detrimental to one’s health when worn for extended periods of time, especially at high altitudes."
She says she was bullied and harassed by other JetBlue employees for sharing this information on the Facebook page. She says she reported the bullying but no action was taken, and ultimately she was fired.
